Hey, it’s Nikola.
I should be happy. By every measure, I won. After Chicago, the entire country saw what Alternating Current could do. Westinghouse won contract after contract. We built the first major power plant at Niagara Falls — using the force of one of nature’s most violent creations to generate electricity for an entire region. When I was a child in Serbia, I told my uncle that one day I’d harness Niagara Falls for power. He laughed. Nobody’s laughing now.
Edison’s Direct Current is dying. The war is over and I won. So naturally I’ve decided to do something much stupider.
I moved to Colorado Springs. Built a laboratory in the middle of nowhere — just me, a few assistants, and an enormous tower with a copper ball on top. The locals think I’m insane. They might be right. Right now, if you want electricity, you need wires. Miles of copper connecting everything. It works — I proved it works. But it’s limited. What about the places where you can’t run wires? What about the other side of the world? I want to send electricity through the air. No wires. No cables. Free power, transmitted across the earth itself, available to anyone anywhere who builds a simple receiver. Energy for the entire planet, free of charge.
I know how that sounds.
The experiments have been... noticeable. A few nights ago I pushed too much power through the tower and produced artificial lightning bolts over a hundred feet long. The thunder was heard fifteen miles away. I accidentally burned out the generator for the entire town of Colorado Springs. Every light in the city went dark. The power company is extremely upset with me.
I also accidentally killed a significant number of butterflies near the tower. I feel terrible about this. I’ve always been fond of small creatures. Recently I’ve become very attached to a particular pigeon that visits my window — white with grey tips on her wings. I think she may be the most beautiful living thing I’ve ever encountered. I feed her every evening. The assistants think this is strange. I don’t care.
I know people talk about me. The newspapers are starting to describe me as a madman instead of an inventor. Maybe they’re partially right. I have certain habits I can’t explain — I must calculate the volume of my food before eating, I can’t touch pearls, I need the number of items around me to be divisible by three. When I was changing the world, people called these traits “eccentric genius.” Now that I’m shooting lightning into the sky, they just call it madness.
Edison called me a dreamer when I described Alternating Current. Engineers called the AC motor impossible. Businessmen stole from me because they assumed a broke immigrant’s ideas were worthless. And then I lit up Chicago. The wireless energy project is bigger than anything I’ve attempted. It may be too big. I’m running out of money, investors are nervous, and there’s a real chance this is the idea that finally breaks me. But I didn’t come to America with four cents in my pocket to play it safe. Alternating Current changed how the world receives power. Wireless energy would change who receives it — everyone, everywhere, for free.
Maybe the world isn’t ready. Maybe they’ll only understand it decades from now. But when they do, I want them to know that someone tried.
That’s where I am. A tower in Colorado, a pigeon on my windowsill, and an idea that’s either going to be the greatest thing I’ve ever done or the last thing I ever attempt.
Whatever happens — it’s been a very good story, hasn’t it?
Take care of yourself.
— Nikola
